Too many reviewers and gamers missed out on the joy of last year's LEGO Star Wars for one lousy reason or another - either they felt that the LEGO brand meant it was a product for kids, or they had issues with the Star Wars prequels and boycotted it on principle. The rest of us just shook our heads, rolled our eyes, muttered "morons" under our breath and then got on with the business of playing one of the best - and definitely the most fun - games of 2005.

There's simply no excuse this time - everyone knows about the joy of LEGO Star Wars, and there is near-universal love for the Star Wars Original Trilogy, so the excitement is building for this new release. LucasArts recently put out a demo that allowed players to experience some of the new stuff the game offers, which includes a portion of the Tatooine level from Episode IV (or just plain Star Wars if you're an old geezer like me!)

There were a few legitimate gripes regarding the first game - the inflexible camera could be problematic, the vehicle missions were not as fun as the rest of the game, and all of the extra stuff you collected was only good for viewing. The developers have taken notice of each of these issues, and the results are apparent in the demo. First the bad news - the PC camera control is still limited and occasionally problematic. It's never a killer problem, since dying just means waiting to be reassembled, but it can be frustrating being killed by enemies that you can't see due to rotation limitation. And that is about it for bad news … the rest is all good!

The vehicle areas have been integrated so that they look and feel as open and fun as the rest of the game - in other words, you can do crazy and stupidly inappropriate, stuff like assaulting the Death Star on foot if you choose! This immediately adds replayability to the game and removes the need to battle through obligatory areas you didn't like or couldn't tackle (like the pod race from Episode I that vexed so many gamers!)

The original game had tremendous replay value, due in part to requiring certain characters to access certain non-critical areas to gather parts to construct vehicles and unlock other special extras. But none of it was playable - until now! Sure, in order to gather all of the parts you will need to spend a bunch of time in Free Play mode gathering them all up, but now you can build ships and items that you can bring into the game to further wreak havoc on Lucas's vision of that galaxy far, far away! Speaking of Free Play, one of the coolest parts of the game is now even better! How? Because of 'buildable characters'. Want to play through Tatooine as a combination of Han Solo and Greedo and shoot yourself? You can do it. You can be Princess Chewie, with Leia in slave bikini on top and very large and hairy legs on the bottom. You can do pretty much anything you want once you unlock the characters, mixing and matching the most bizarre combinations you can come up with!

The basic gameplay and control system is pretty much the same as the first game - and that's a good thing! Despite using only the keyboard, the game is very easy to control - there are keys to move your selected character, with another set to attack, jump, perform special moves (or use Force powers) and transfer control to another character. Two-player mode is still tricky on the PC - keyboard sharing is pretty tough for my kids, let alone two adults - but that hasn't stopped us from trying! Once you get comfortable, the controls cease to be an issue, which is great, since the drop-in two-player mode is insane amounts of fun, and while it certainly feels like it is made for consoles, the PC version works just fine as well.

The graphics and sound in the original were very good - but these are better. Differentiating objects that allow manipulation is better, as are the animations. As you play through the Mos Eisley spaceport level of the demo, you use Obi-Wan to build various things - sometimes using the force, other times using a crazy sped-up stop-motion effect that is fun to watch and keeps things moving at a good pace. There are even more hidden gems littering the environment and almost everything can be destroyed or manipulated by one or more of the characters. One major change in the stories of the Original Trilogy compared to the Prequels is that there are very few Force users around any more. Since the majority of puzzles in LEGO Star Wars required Force power use, there was a need to retool the systems to integrate the other characters more in progressing the story. Each character has special moves that are a blast to play - the most infamous of these is having Chewie rip the arms off of a Stormtrooper, but each character has them. This makes it more fun to play with all of the different characters, whereas in the first game many players only used Jar Jar when a high jump was needed and then switched back to someone else.

The absolutely coolest thing that shows how the developers have really focused on providing a much more open environment in which vehicles and characters interact naturally is when you can build an AT-ST. Okay, so it has no place on Tatooine, but who cares?! It is a bit of a puzzle, since you need to build and move multiple components, but it is really quite simple to solve and anyone making an attempt to find any extras will do it automatically. There are other AT-STs to battle, or you can make short work of Stormtroopers - or you can just wander around blowing stuff up. Of course, you have to use your controlled character to pilot, and if you leave the vehicle it is possible that a Stormtrooper might take control and start blasting you and your companions.

Fortunately the death system also remains unchanged; if you take too much damage you simply fall apart into your component LEGO parts and many of your LEGO 'studs' scatter around. After your character reassembles you can scramble around and gather up much of your property - because LEGO studs are still the currency of the game. You use them to unlock characters, buy special items and even activate special effects and cheats.

At the end of the Mos Eisley mission, as you watch the Millenium Falcon blast out of the space port, you are left with feeling truly satisfied. Here is a game that has lost none of the spirit of fun of the original, but has actually expanded on it - here is a game that realizes that gamers don't just want to play the trilogy; they want to be silly, crazy even, and completely turn George Lucas's world upside down for no good reason at all. That's why the original game was such a surprise hit, and why the sequel is such a hotly anticipated game - if this isn't on your wish list, put it there now! You know you want to go back for more fun in the galaxy far, far away, and the developers have been laughing themselves silly getting it ready for you!

Previewed by Michael Anderson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).